Reserve Currency

"I must admit, I am a little surprised the Fed's goal of withdrawing accommodation without having the whole financial system come crashing down has gone so smoothly. But I wonder if the Federal Reserve isn’t pushing their luck..."

"You know what’s so tragic about America? Despite all of the wars our nation gets involved in, we’re secretly one of the most peaceful cultures on the planet... We’ve been voting for peace for nearly 20 years now, and all we get is war. That should really tell you something. It should tell you that our system doesn’t care about what the president stands for, or what the voters want."

It is now apparent that the only way in which significant change will come about in American foreign affairs will be if there is a severe financial crisis which impairs the nation enough so that it can no longer bankroll its military adventurism. History has a number of examples of this.

"What's going on in the US now is a culture clash. They don't just dislike each other and disagree on politics; they can no longer even have a conversation. They hate each other on a visceral gut level. They have totally different world views. I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime. There hasn't been anything like this since the War Between the States, which shouldn't be called "The Civil War," because it wasn't a civil war. "

"...the people at the top of the corporate food chain who have privileged information about their businesses are NOT buying. As the Journal summarized, “These markets know no fear.” There’s an incredible amount of complacency despite obvious warning signs."

"...wealth will be institutionalized. The concept of withdrawal will fade along with the fiction of ownership... A criminal corporate commonwealth, supported by a fiat dollar as global reserve currency enforced by threat of war and economic collapse, will be deaf to protest from below..."

“For longer-term purposes, an appreciation of the dollar is a good thing, and I would expect longer-term, as you’ve seen over periods of time, the dollar does appreciate. “In the short term, there are certain aspects [of a strong currency] that are positive about the dollar for our economy and there are certain aspects that are not as positive."

It’s hard to overstate how much the petrodollar system benefits the US dollar. It’s allowed the US government and many Americans to live beyond their means for decades. And it’s the reason the media and political elite give the Saudis special treatment...